We keep San Francisco's Vintage Streetcars on Track

Menu

streetcar

This year’s Muni Heritage Weekend got off to a great start with a special reception, sponsored by Market Street Railway, honoring San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board Chair Tom Nolan, who just received a prestigious industry award. The universally-respected Nolan, a steady hand in leading SFMTA for many years, was just named board member of the year by the American Public Transportation Association.

Following the invitation-only reception at our San Francisco Railway Museum, everyone hopped on 1934 Blackpool, England boat tram 233 for a sail along The Embarcadero to Pier 39 and back, spotting a bigger boat at the Pier 27 Cruise Ship Terminal. (Click the center of the screen below to see!) The new-but-traditional colored lights on this boat were made possible by contributions at the museum to our “Float the Boats” fund, enhancing these two wonderful ambassadors from Blackpool. Boat tram 233 itself was brought to San Francisco by Market Street Railway in 2013 and given to Muni thanks to a generous donation by the Thoresen Foundation, with shipping underwritten in part by FedEx Trade Networks.

Saturday and Sunday, September 24-25, starting at 10 a.m. and wrapping up between 4 and 5 p.m., there’ll be lots of vintage transit action. Two vintage trolley coaches (776 from 1950 and 5300 from 1975) will leave every 45 minutes between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. giving free rides along Muni’s first trolley coach route, the R-Howard-South Van Ness, which opened 75 years ago. There’ll be rarely-operating historic streetcars, including a boat tram and 1896 “dinky” 578, offering free rides between the museum and Pier 39. Two streetcars from Muni’s original fleet, Car 1 (1912) and Car 130 (1914) are slated to run as part of E-Embarcadero line service, along with 1948 PCC cars No. 1006, 1008, and 1011. These rides will be at regular Muni fares, as will the special cable car, O’Farrell, Jones & Hyde Street Car 42, built in 1907, which will operate in regular service on the California Street Line just a block from the museum.

At this writing, motor coach arrangements are pending after an unexpected maintenance issue cropped up in 1969 GMC Coach 3287. We will update this post as we know more.

At the museum, we’ll be offering a great line of gifts and some one-of-a-kind memorabilia, including books and photos of historic rail operations outside San Francisco. Get there early for the best selection.

We’ve got a great combo opportunity coming up on Sunday, August 24. It’s a charter on PCC streetcar No. 1050 that starts at 1:00 p.m. at our San Francisco Railway Museum. We’ll cruise down The Embarcadero past AT&T Park, past all the new development on Third Street in Mission Bay and Dogpatch, then loop through Muni Metro East, the current home of the historic streetcar fleet and not usually open to the public.

Then we’ll head all the way back up the waterfront to Pier 39 and turn around, finishing at The Exploratorium at Pier 15. Your tour package includes VIP admission to one of the world’s great interactive science museums, which you can enjoy right up until closing time at 5 p.m. It’s a great afternoon out, enhanced by expert commentary along the route by our own Paul Lucas.
The package is $45 for Market Street Railway members, $55 for non-members. Under 18: $30. More information and sign up here.

Something about the poet and author Dr. Maya Angelou escaped most people’s attention, until now. She was once employed by our namesake, Market Street Railway Company, Muni’s old competitor, as a streetcar conductor. The first black female conductor in San Francisco history, in fact.

She said this decades ago in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, when she describes in some detail standing on the back platform of a streetcar rolling along the edge of Golden Gate Park, collecting nickels from boarding passengers. But now it has become national news, because she talked about it with Oprah. Here’s a clip from that interview, courtesy Harpo Productions.

Dr. Maya Angelou says the love of her mother, Vivian Baxter, encouraged her to live a life full of pizzazz. It was also that love that helped Dr. Angelou to become the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco at age 16. “I loved the uniforms,” Dr. Angelou says. “So I said, ‘That’s a job I want.'” When she went to get an application, Dr. Angelou says, the staff refused to give her one. Find out how her mother encouraged her to persevere. Then, see how Vivian made sure her daughter was safe at work during her early-morning shifts.

We provided the program with some photos of Market Street Railway streetcars next to Golden Gate Park. (It’s not entirely clear from her writings and interviews whether she worked the 5-McAllister or 7-Haight line.) The producers added photos of female transit workers from other systems, not San Francisco’s. The program promotes “How Dr. Angelou Became San Francisco’s First Black Streetcar Conductor.” Hiring records no longer exist, but anecdotal evidence we’ve gathered over the years indicate several African-Americans found employment on the streetcars a little earlier than Dr. Angelou. That, however, in no way diminishes her incredible story of perseverance and determination in overcoming both racism and sexism to land the job she wanted — when she was just 16 years old and still used her birth name, Marguerite Johnson.

The town’s been buzzing about the locations being used for Woody Allen’s new movie now being filmed. No one knows the title yet (if it even has one), but today we learned at least one scene is being filmed on a Muni PCC streetcar, No. 1060, to be precise.

Cate Blanchett in the doorway of F-line streetcar No. 1060 during filming of Woody Allen’s new movie in San Francisco, August 24, 2012. Photo copyright Rick Laubscher.

That’s Cate Blanchett in the doorway, waiting with the car on the Eleventh Street wye trackage, out of the way of revenue streetcars. We were told by the crew member that they would be shooting a scene as the streetcar rolled down Market Street. The last time a film crew drew so much interest on a rail vehicle on Market was 1906!
Of course, the F-line streetcars have been used in movies and TV commercials numerous times before. The publicity’s great, and those filming fees can’t hurt either.

Jim Lekas photo, Market Street Railway Archive Here’s an oddity. Not the photo, but where it showed up. We love this shot for two reasons: it features preserved Muni “Iron Monster” No. 162, near the end of its original service life on the M-Ocean View line on 19th Avenue crossing Junipero Serra, and it’s got that cool Nash keeping pace right alongside. We know this photo, because it’s part of our collection, donated to us by MSR member Jim Lekas,… — Read More

We Need Your Help

Who We Are

Market Street Railway is a non-profit organization with 1000 members, founded in 1976. Our mission: Preserving Historic Transit in San Francisco.

We advocate for historic streetcar and cable car service improvements and expansion, educate people about the importance of attractive transit in creating vibrant, livable cities, and celebrate the wonderful historic streetcars, cable cars, and buses owned and operated by Muni, a service of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

We also operate the free San Francisco Railway Museum across from the Ferry Building at 77 Steuart Street, open Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Our group’s leaders were the driving force in making vintage streetcars a full-time part of the San Francisco scene in the 1980s and 1990s.

While we support Muni’s historic transit activities, we are not part of Muni and we receive no government money whatever. We rely instead on private donations and membership dues to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future.

This website, our member newsletter, “Inside Track,” and our social media outlets bring you the latest news and information about San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars.